 by Yoon Joung Lee
Younger sister of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, Rose Marie Kennedy, was born at her parents' house in Boston, Massachusetts in 1918. She was the third child and first daughter of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Elizabeth Kennedy. She was known commonly as "Rosemary" or "Rosie" to her friends and family during her lifetime. She has been described as a shy and mentally slow girl by brain damage at birth whose I.Q. test reportedly indicated a moderate mental retardation. She also reportedly had violent mood swings and her personality became very assertive. Therefore, the often-stormy Rosemary was hard to get along with her siblings who were expected to perform to high standards. Though, there is evidence via diary entries and arithmetic problems that Rosemary was not mentally deficient at all. Still, as she got older, her family worried that her reported mental problems might damage the family's reputation. In 1941, doctors told her father about a new neurosurgical procedure, Prefrontal Leucotomy. The doctors believed that this procedure would be able to help calm her mood swings. However, this procedure was relatively new at that time, and only a few procedures had been performed. Rosemary, considered mentally retarded, was the first person considered as such, to receive a prefrontal lobotomy in America. James W. Watts and Walter Freeman, performed a prefrontal lobotomy on Rosemary at the age of 23 as her father, Joseph Kennedy Sr. asked a neurosurgeon to perform a treatment to relieve her serious mental disorders. However, the procedure left her permanently incapacitated and she was incapable of living a normal life. She stayed in several private institutions until she was institutionalized during the 1940s at St. Coletta's home near Jefferson, Wisconsin for the mentally disabled. Inspired by Rosemary Kennedy’s story, her younger sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, became an activist for mental retardation. Eunice Kennedy Shriver took over her sister’s care when her mother got a stroke, and founded the Special Olympics for mentally disabled athletes in 1968. Rosemary Kennedy died by natural causes in 2005 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. She was 86.
Olivia Cucco
2/19/2011 10:54:43 pm
Rosemary Kennedy was not mentally retarded. FBI records from the 1950's state that she had a "mental illness." Her sister, Kick, was good friends with John White, who was doing research at St. Elizabeth's Hospital where Dr. Freeman and Dr. Watts began performing lobotomies. White told Kick, who along with her mother, Rose, wanted information on the success of these "lobotomies" after Joe Kennedy approached his wife about Rosemary having one. John White told Kick to tell her parents it was dangerous, and he had not seen any improvement in the lives of the people he had seen and studied to have had lobotomies. Instead, it ended up giving the opposite effect of destroying the personality, or soul of the person. He recommended her to tell her father and mother not to chose the lobotomy. Kick did just that, and Rose Kennedy sided with her daughter. Joe Kennedy then took his daughter secretly and had the procedure done. Dr. Watts said in an interview before his death, "she suffered from anxiety. She was not retarded. It was a nervous agitation with trembling hands that she exhibited." Joe refused to tell the family where she was for a number of years, around four to six. Then he set her up in St. Coletta's in Wisconsin. Still, it wasn't until Joe Kennedy's death that the family went to see her and try to establish a relationship with her and reintroduce her into the family. In my opinion, the lie of Rosemary being retarded and then saying she was the inspiration of the Special Olympics belittles Rosemary's life and experience. She was a first-born daughter who was stripped of her role and her younger and loved sister, Kick, was put in Rosemary's position amongst the children. From a young age, she was different and was told that repeatedly. She was an outcast in her own home, and at times, sent away to live with her godparents, the Moore's, who treated her as if she was retarded. Rosemary was not retarded in any way. She more than likely was dyslexic and because she was not as charismatic as her other brothers and sister, who were known as "the Golden Trio," and treated as such, Rosemary was labeled the family scapegoat. She did not want follow Joe and Rose's rules of "Win, win, win!" She dared to be different and paid with the stripping of her mind. What happened to her speaks volumes about the Kennedy Family. "You do what you are told, and if you do not conform and be a credit to your father, this is what will happen to you."
Birgit Walter
7/10/2012 04:41:03 am
very sad story
jen
5/19/2013 12:44:50 am
It does NOT speak volumes about the family as a whole, but about Joe Kennedy himself, and what he held of value..his reputation above all, and NO imperfections. What a horrible man.
janine d
8/24/2012 03:34:24 pm
The Kennedy's are evil. Joe Kennedy was a filthy pig.I do not understand why this family is looked up to like American royalty.
jen
5/19/2013 12:47:34 am
What a horrible statement to make. I am surprised it was allowed. But since it was, I guess I can state that YOU are an evil person to judge a family by the rules of the father in this case. To ignore the complete history of the family is ridiculous and biased. You must be a republican.
Riv
1/25/2013 08:01:42 am
This is such a sad story. The Kennedy family had no knowledge about how the brain functions and to assume being different is wrong to do to their ow child Comments are closed.
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